United used to give Star Alliance elite members really outstanding treatment — including economy plus seating for Gold members and a generous checked baggage allowance for Golds and Silvers.

Long after economy plus extra legroom seating went away,

• Star Alliance Silver members lost their second free checked bag in March 2011.
  
• Star Alliance Gold members were reduced from 3 checked bags to 1, and down from 70 pounds each to 50 in October 2013.
  
• At the same time Star Alliance silver members had free checked bags taken away from them entirely

Now the United baggage fee details page has been updated to show once again that Star Alliance Silver members — frequent flyers with the lowest-tier status level of their airline alliance partners — will get a free checked bag when flying United.

Oddly, then, Star Alliance silver members now have the same free checked baggage allowance that Star Alliance Golds get. (And neither gets economy plus seating.)

Both then and now United remains compliant with Star Alliance checked bag policies, since the alliance doesn’t require free checked bags for silvers. But it’s nice to see that back. Perhaps United has found that treating partner elites less well meant getting less business from partner airline elites.

The easiest Star Silver to obtain is Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus. 4000 status miles in a year qualifies for Silver, and you get 1000 status miles just for signing up for the program. So you only need 3000 qualifying miles to hit silver. And once you earn a status you keep it as long as you keep your account active. So for those paying attention, it’s lifetime Star ALliance Silver status — at least as long as Aegean stays in business, as a Star Alliance member, and doesn’t change its frequent flyer program rules.

Of course you can also get free checked bags by becoming a United Explorer credit card holder.

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